How GAO Built Its Dream House

Chapter 9, The President Lays the Cornerstone for GAO's Building

GAO's new headquarters
building was dedicated on September 11, 1951. President Harry S. Truman
attended the ceremony and laid the cornerstone. In his speech, the President
talked about the perception by government officials that GAO was "a bugaboo
that keeps them from doing what they want to do" and that many people outside
the government considered GAO "a dry and boring subject." The President
assured his audience that "the General Accounting Office is neither a bugaboo
nor a bore. It is a vital part of our Government. Its work is of great
benefit to all of us. The people who run the General Accounting Office
certainly deserve these new and better quarters." He congratulated GAO
for handling "the biggest auditing job in the history of mankind."

Comptroller
General Warren stood next to President Truman as he laid
the GAO building’s cornerstone

The building's cornerstone
is located to the right of the G Street entrance door. Inscribed on it
are several names, including President Truman, Comptroller General Warren,
and builder John McShain. Sealed within the cornerstone are commemorative
items: copies of addresses given by Truman and Warren at the September
11, 1951 dedication ceremony; construction photos; current issues of coins
and postage stamps; the 1951 GAO telephone directory; the fiscal year 1951
federal budget in brief; GAO’s 1950 annual report; and a September 11,
1951, Washington newspaper.

At the time it opened,
the GAO building was the largest air-conditioned structure in the capital
city. In the greater Washington area, only the Pentagon in suburban Northern
Virginia then surpassed GAO's building in size. A historic structures report
prepared for GSA in 1990 noted that the completed building covered a ground
area of 209,200 square feet and appeared as "a solid block set squarely
on the ground" with walls that "rise sheer and unadorned."

A fact sheet prepared
at the time of the building dedication explained that GAO's new headquarters:

• had a total gross
area of 1,935,500 square feet, and a volume of 25,862,00 cubic feet,

• had over 1,000
windows,

• measured 638 feet
on G Street and 388 feet on 4th Street,

• provided parking
for approximately 800 cars in its garage,

• had a cafeteria
on the third floor that was equipped to serve 7,500 meals a day,

• was served by
twelve passenger elevators, two escalators "to handle the peak morning
and afternoon loads" and four freight elevators. The escalators served
floors one through five, and remained operational until the early 1990s.

This model
of the GAO building from 1949 shows that architects originally envisioned
placing outdoor sculptures at the corners of the structure

Inside, the interior
reflects a style popular in the late 1940s, when architects and designers
drew up plans for the building. The style is called Art Moderne or Late
Depression Modern. It is similar to the stylized Art Deco design popularized
in the 1920s, but is somewhat more austere and streamlined. The lst floor
elevator lobbies in GAO’s building reflect Art Moderne style in the use
of stylized lotus motifs and the repetitive groupings of horizontal lines
and geometric shapes.

Planning officials
considered putting outdoor sculptures at the corners of the building, but
decided in the end simply to landscape the areas. Although they recommended
placing murals in the entrance lobbies, budget difficulties prevented GAO
from carrying out these plans. Bas relief sculptures designed by Joseph
Kiselewski adorn the G Street entrance. However, GAO could not find the
money to finish similar decorations designed by Lee Lawrie for the H Street
entrance.

The panels at the
G Street entrance show professional people and laborers. On April 25, 1952,
The
Evening Star described the new bas-reliefs. In an article headlined,
"Brief Case Boys Cut in Granite at New GAO Building Entrance," The Star
took note of one figure:

"The brief case boys, familiar figures on the Washington scene, have been immortalized
in sculpture. One of their number forms part of two sculptured panels flanking
the south entrance on G street N.W. of the new General Accounting Office
Building. Toting his brief case, he is carved in enduring granite. About
30 figures on the two panels symbolize the various activities of Government
on which the GAO rides herd. The man with the brief case symbolizes the
business activities of Government and Government's relations with private
business. He is not tagged, however. The observer, therefore, may write
his own ticket. The man with the brief case may be regarded as an harassed
businessman summoned before a congressional committee. Or a happy businessman
with a government contract in the brief case. Or a Government official
on his way to a policy-making huddle with other officials."

Inside
the building, the elevator doors contain aluminum bas-reliefs by Heinz
Warneke, a German sculptor who moved to the United States in 1925.
They reflect the Art Moderne style popular in the late 1940s. Warneke's
elevator door panels represent the spirit of laws, freedom of religion,
freedom of speech, liberty, justice, internal development, national ideology,
and national security. Smaller panels around the framework of the sliding
elevator doors represent sunlight, rain, snow, wind, hydrography, energy-matter,
geology, and astronomy. The photograph above shows the original Art
Moderne elements in the elevator lobby on the G Street side of the GAO
building. When GAO undertook an extensive modernization of interior
space in the 1990s, designers echoed the original Art Moderne style in
new doorways and light fixtures throughout the building.

The new design
for a hallway renovated in the 1990s reflects the GAObuilding’s
original "Art Moderne" style